FrizzLit tour of Roman mythology!

Last chance to sign up! We start Saturday at 10 am Pacific on Zoom

Bernini’s sculpture of Pluto (or as the Greeks called him, Hades) and Proserpina (aka Persephone) and the three-headed dog Cerberus.

Pluto, Proserpina, and Cerberus all figure into the Roman Mythology Club that starts on Saturday.

Five discussion questions have already been sent out to everyone who’s signed up. One of them is: “What is the most surprising transformation you have witnessed in your lifetime?”

If you sign up now, you’ll get the four other discussion questions with your receipt and confirmation.

The way Pluto’s hand presses into Proserpina’s thigh is one of the most famous things about this sculpture.

A recent trip to Rome unlocked many insights about the mythological creatures the Romans believed in around the time of the birth of Christ.

And the art that was made about those mythological creatures — holy moly!

Stories within stories within stories.

So much to show you.

There’s a different expression on each of Cerberus’s faces.

Our text for this class is lighter than usual — and mostly white space, because it’s poetry.

Vivid, witty, concise narrative poetry by Ovid, as transformed by Ted Hughes.

Bernini sculpted this in 1621. You can tell Pluto’s a bad dude from the way she’s pushing his face away.

The book is called Tales from Ovid and it’s basically a greatest hits of Ovid’s tales.

There are 250 transformations described in Ovid’s original Metamorphoses, but Hughes chooses just 24 of them in his brilliantly selective translation.

The lifelike fluidity of the marble is stunning.

Other characters we’ll be reading about, looking at, and discussing include:

• Jupiter, aka Zeus

• Venus, aka Aphrodite

• Hercules, who battles Cerberus when he’s not busy battling centaurs (and is my boyfriend)

• Minerva, aka Athena

• Tiresias (the blind seer) and his vision of Echo and Narcissus

• Midas, and many others

The ceiling behind Pluto and Proserpina is the Galleria Borghese

You do not need to read anything before our first meeting on Saturday.

To join the club, you just need:

• To buy a ticket

• To get a copy of the book

The Zoom link will be sent out to everyone 24 hours before we start.

All classes are recorded, and recordings are automatically sent out to everyone who’s signed up.

I am leading this club myself, and I hope to see you there!

Here’s the book we’re reading together. You don’t need to read anything before our first meeting.